Mount Rainier butterfly researchers track climate change. What have they found?

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Butterfly counts and flowering times shift earlier in warmer, low-snow years.

Volunteers now lead Mt. Rainier surveys after federal research funding ended.

Butterflies serve as effective indicators of broader ecological climate trends.

A flash of orange darted between blue broadleaf lupine, magenta paintbrush and pink-white mountain daisies before the small butterfly disappeared into the sky.

“That’s another California Tortoiseshell,” called out Regina Rochefort, directing another volunteer to mark a slash on their observation record. “This seems to be a high year.”

Rochefort, who lives in Mount Vernon, has been leading citizen scientists with the Cascades Butterfly Project since 2011, monitoring ecological changes in the North Cas